It’s Wednesday, May 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: DOGE and the NIH go to war; Elon says he’s halting his political spending; the top-secret scandal at Area 52; and much more.
But first: Was Salman Rushdie’s attacker acting alone?
Last week, Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for assaulting and attempting to murder Salman Rushdie. Three years after Matar stabbed the famed novelist 15 times onstage at a literary festival in upstate New York, justice had been served.
With Matar behind bars, you might think the story ends there. But major questions about the case—and Rushdie’s assailant—remain unanswered.
What drove Matar—a kid from New Jersey with Lebanese parents—to almost carry out the death sentence issued before he was even born, in a 1989 fatwa by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini? Was he a lone wolf extremist or part of a bigger operation? What was the significance of the fake driver’s license found on Matar, bearing the name of a dead Hezbollah commander? And what happened during the trip to southern Lebanon several years prior to the attack that his mother says changed him forever?
These are some of the questions that will be tackled in Matar’s upcoming federal trial on terrorism charges. They’re also questions we’ve been searching for answers to in our reporting on the case.
In partnership with the Center for Peace Communications, we sent a reporter to Yaroun, a Hezbollah stronghold on the border with Israel, where Matar’s father lives, and where Hadi is believed to have spent a pivotal summer in 2018. The story that came together—through interviews with local sheikhs, villagers, and Hadi’s own father—is nothing short of explosive.
It also quickly became apparent that Hezbollah didn’t want this story told.
A few days into the trip, we got a chilling note from the field: Several members of the terror group confronted our reporter in Yaroun, confiscated his camera, wiped the memory card, and destroyed hours of footage—including interviews with locals willing to speak on the record.
Despite the lost footage, we still managed to piece the story together. To our knowledge, this is the first time a news organization has traced Hadi Matar’s path from New Jersey to southern Lebanon. Our reporting revealed key new details about what drove him to jump onstage in Chautauqua, New York, armed with a knife. Watch and read our investigation below.
— Tanya Lukyanova
Elon Musk’s DOGE has brought a “move fast and break things” ethos to Washington—including the National Institutes of Health, where senior officials say the Silicon Valley disrupters are bringing chaos that is undermining the chance of lasting reform.
In Bastrop, Texas, Elon Musk isn’t just building the future—he’s building a town “like a company colony on Mars.” With a Montessori school, a merch-stocked bodega, and rumors of Musk being sighted in his tinted-window Cybertruck, “Muskville” gleams like “a spaceship . . . in a cow pasture.” Locals wonder: Is the richest man in the world there to take over?
Everyone’s heard of Area 51. But just down the road is Area 52—a top-secret weapons testing site where veterans say they were exposed to radiation and left to suffer in silence. Because their work was classified, the veterans say, they can’t prove it, can’t get compensation, and can’t even tell their doctors what they did. That’s the subject of our new Free Press documentary.
Elon Musk will take a step back from political spending, he said Tuesday. The Tesla CEO, who spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election, said he thought he had “done enough.” He added that “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Maine legislature to revoke its censure of GOP state representative Laurel Libby, who was punished for a social media post identifying a transgender high school athlete who won a girls’ pole vault competition. In a 7–2 decision, the Court ruled Libby’s right to relief was “indisputably clear.” Read Libby’s op-ed in The Free Press: “I Was Elected to Fight for Women and Girls. Maine Democrats Censured Me for Doing Just That.”
Three U.S. senators are investigating Paramount Global over concerns it may be using a lawsuit settlement with Donald Trump to win favor for its merger with Skydance Media. In a letter to Chair Shari Redstone, Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) suggest the company’s actions might violate federal bribery laws. Trump is suing CBS News for $20 billion, alleging a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris was deceptively edited—a claim CBS denies.
International pressure is mounting on Israel as its renewed ground offensive in Gaza leaves hundreds dead and aid remains largely blocked. Leaders from the UK, France, and Canada warned of potential sanctions if the offensive continues, while Israel said it will let a “basic amount of food” enter the enclave. The developments come as Israel and Hamas began another round of indirect talks in Qatar on Saturday.
President Trump, in a visit to the Capitol, urged congressional Republicans to unite behind his “big, beautiful bill,” warning them in a closed-door meeting not to push for further changes, especially to Medicaid. "Don't fuck around with Medicaid," he reportedly told lawmakers, while also discouraging additional carve outs for state and local tax deductions. Some GOP holdouts say they remain unconvinced.
The Department of Homeland Security launched its first self-deportation flight for “Project Homecoming,” repatriating 64 migrants from Texas to Honduras and Colombia this week. Under a new executive order signed by President Trump, participants “received travel assistance, a $1,000 stipend, and preserved the possibility they could one day return to the United States legally,” according to DHS. Read Madeleine Rowley’s Free Press report: “Can Trump Really Deport One Million Migrants This Year?”
In an interview with Candace Owens conducted from prison, Harvey Weinstein claimed he was “wrongfully convicted” and denied the rape allegations that led to his two convictions, one of which was overturned in 2024. Weinstein, whose retrial is ongoing in New York, characterized his actions as “mistakes,” not crimes, and dismissed Gwyneth Paltrow’s harassment accusations against him as “a complete fabrication.” Read Kat Rosenfield on “Harvey Weinstein and the Death Rattle of #MeToo.”
For the first time, doctors have used prime editing—a more precise form of the CRISPR-Cas9 technique—to treat a person: an 18-year-old with a rare immune disorder. A month after treatment, the teen showed no serious side effects, and the edited cells restored enzyme function in two-thirds of his neutrophils, offering a promising boost to his immune system. Scientists caution it’ll take up to a year to know if the therapy is a lasting success.
Huh. It seems that, apart from darling Batya Ungar-Sargon's piece on Trump's Middle-east travels, TFP has nothing else to say. The idea that the region may be interested in profit over murder is a boring story. I cannot tell you how, as a human being in this time, this enrages me. Eh -- seething beats serene every time, I guess..
Dealing with DOGE: “That was very frustrating. They are not patient with the way that the government normally works.”
No kidding. I don't think any of us are. We have to deal with a legacy government the nuts and bolts of which were designed 250 years ago. To save our republic we are going to have to upgrade the way our government works to be more responsive. Things happen a lot faster in the 21st century than in the 18th. DOGE is a good start.